American cinema never learned how to exploit Loren's voluptuously earthy appeal,
as revealed here in her Oscar-winning performance - the only actress to win this
award for a foreign-language film. The performance and the powerful narrative
made the film one of the few foreign pictures to enjoy real success in the USA.
It told the story, set in Italy in 1943, of a widowed mother and her teenage
daughter surviving enemy attack, deprivation and rape by Allied Moroccan
soldiers. The film is actually a rather old-fashioned melodramatic star vehicle,
meant originally for Magnani as Loren's mother, but Magnani flatly refused.

NOTE:
The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The
Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Koch

Bitrate:

Medusa

Audio

DUB English
(Mono)

Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0)

Subtitles

None

Italian
and
none

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Koch Vision Entertainment

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Static screen bio of Loren ( 3 pages)

Part
of the 4 disc Koch Boxset - Cinema Sirens

DVD
Release Date: October 22, 2002Keep Case

Chapters 8

Release Information:
Studio: Medusa (Italy)

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Edition Details:
• Presente di Maurizio Porro (6:00)

• Documentary "Cinema Forever" (6:00)

• Documentary "La Ciociarra 40 ani doppo" (7:33)

• Three trailers

• Behind the Scenes (5:20)

• Deleted Scene (:41)
• Cast and Credits

Italian
subs only on Extras Features

DVD
Release Date: May 28th, 2003Keep Case

Chapters 18

Comments:

Perhaps our most
lop-sided comparisons ever. Vittorio De Sica's "Two Women" is
a film that snuck into the public domain and the English dubbed version
has been transferred on DVD in some of the most ghastly productions ever
by both Koch and Madacy. Medusa have now released this film in its
proper aspect ratio and with original Italian audio, but most unfortunately,
they did not include English subtitles. Everything about the Medusa DVD
is obviously superior but I suppose one could use DVDSubber or a
similar software to obtain a written transcript of the films dialogue in
English. It would be worth it.If anyone takes the trouble
to do this, could they please email me, I would appreciate it.